24 people meet March 21 filing deadline to run for local school boards

by DICK MASON / The Observer 

Following a flurry of last-minute filings, the Union County school board election field is set.

A total of 24 people met the March 21 filing deadline. Ballots for the election will be sent out in early May and must be returned by May 21. 

Following are the candidates in each Union County School District.

Subcommittees tackle issues Oregon faces in managing state, federal forests

by KATY NESBITT / The Observer 

WALLOWA — Better managing Oregon’s state and national forests are not only a concern for Gov. John Kitzhaber, but of his Board of Forestry.

This winter, the board split into two subcommittees to address the challenges of forest health and economic concerns on federally managed land. Nils Christoffersen, executive director of Wallowa Resources in Enterprise, was appointed to the board of forestry last summer and heads the federal forests subcommittee. Tom Insko of Boise Cascade also serves on the committee along with Cindy Williams, a fisheries biologist from Medford. 

Jack Fox of La Grande plays guitar during a performance last week at the Union County Senior Center. Fox shows no signs of slowing down, even into his 90s, performing with his band, ‘The Blue Mountaineers,’ several times each week. When Fox is not playing for the Blue Mountaineers he often can be found preaching and leading Bible studies at churches and assisted living centers. Chris Baxter/The Observer

by Dick Mason/The Observer

He stopped calling square dances years ago but today there is no stopping this 92-year-old wonder. Meet Jack Fox of La Grande, a man adept at slowing the sands of time to a trickle and putting a spring into the steps of others. 

Fox is a member of the Blue Mountaineers, an old-time country western band, which brings people to their feet at events throughout Union County. 

Playing numbers ranging from “One at a Time” to “Crystal Chandeliers,” the popular band provides music for seniors and people of all ages to dance to. Nobody is more important to the band’s success than Fox, its lead vocalist and a guitar player. Fox always answers the call to play in a big way, said band member Denny Langford of Union. 

by Terri Harber/WesCom News Service

The unemployment rate didn’t improve around Northeastern Oregon between December and January,  according to the Oregon Employment Department.

Union County’s adjusted rate for January was 8.8 percent. This is better than the original estimate of 10.7 percent. The rate was 8.6 percent in December.

Baker County’s adjusted rate during the December-to-January period remained the same at 9.3 percent. This is more positive than the original estimate of 12.2 percent for January.

by OBSERVER STAFF 

A commercial truck driver suffered only a minor injury Wednesday afternoon when a wind gust apparently tipped his truck and empty trailer on their side on Interstate 84 near North Powder.

The crash occured about five miles north of North Powder at about 2:10 p.m. Wednesday. The driver of the truck sustained a minor injury and did not have to be transported to a hospital.

by Pat Caldwell/For The Observer

ONTARIO — One of the Army National Guard’s most effective recruiting tools went off the market recently, the victim of the federal budget quagmire known as 
sequestration.

The Army endorsed the suspension of the Tuition Assistance program March 8 and the Secretary of the Air Force approved the postponement of the agenda March 11. Members of the military already enrolled in the higher education aid program before March 5 will not be affected by the suspension. However, no new tuition assistance candidates will be accepted by the military.

Last-minute Congressional budget arbitration could eventually rescue the vaunted military college aid agenda.

by Bill Rautenstrauch/For The Observer

The City of La Grande’s proposed Small Business Development Loan Program came in for some scrutiny — and criticism — during a city council work session Monday night.

If enacted in the next fiscal year as planned, the program will provide short-term, small-to-mid scale loans for entrepreneurs looking to establish businesses within the city’s urban renewal district. Some $250,000 in urban renewal funds would be budgeted one time for the program. As money is paid back, it would be placed in a fund for future loans.

Some councilors and Urban Renewal Advisory Committee members present at the Monday session voiced support for the program, which was recently added to the Urban Renewal Plan by amendment. One councilor, though, expressed some strong reservations in a written statement.

by Dick Mason/The Observer

The La Grande School District may ask voters to approve a bond or option levy tax as early as 2014. 

The La Grande School Board agreed by consensus at a work session Wednesday to have Superintendent Larry Glaze create a committee to establish time frames for a possible bond or option levy election. The time frames will be for two years and an election in 2014. They will outline the schedules the school district would follow to pursue a bond or option levy.

Ice forms on logs being conditioned Thursday at Boise Cascade in La Grande. Trucks gathering logs for the Boise Cascade sawmill roll out of La Grande early on 480-mile round trips to the Mount Hood National Forest, Washington’s Okanogan National Forest and federal woodlands in Idaho. Chris Baxter/The Observer

 Program would make wood from nearby forests more available for use in sawmills

by Richard Cockle/The Oregonian

Trucks gathering logs for the Boise Cascade sawmill roll out of La Grande at 2 a.m. to begin their daylong, 480-mile round trips to the Mount Hood National Forest, Washington’s Okanogan National Forest and other federal woodlands in Idaho.

“It is crazy to have to go that far for logs, totally,” said Jim Princehouse, 67, of La Grande, who owns a fleet of 11 log trucks. “This is a hard life. It really is.”

A staggering 800 million board feet of wood fiber annually reaches maturity in the nearby Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur national forests. Only 11 percent gets to sawmills, while 400 million board feet succumb to insects, disease, fire and age, said industry spokesman Tom Partin. He likened the mills’ situation to “starving to death when you are standing beside the refrigerator.”

Yellow star thistle is one of the noxious weeds that has invaded Northeastern Oregon’s canyon country. Mark Porter photo

by Katy Nesbitt/The Observer

Use of herbicides on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest will be limited this field season due to a decision handed down in Portland’s U.S. District Court. 

Judge Michael Simon agreed with the League of Wilderness Defenders that the forest’s 2010 treatment plan did not adequately consider the cumulative impacts of herbicides in newly identified treatment areas.

The decision does allow the continued use of herbicides on lands identified in the 1992 and 1994 environmental assessments, including the use of the newly approved herbicides for a total of 10 allowable chemicals.

In addition, eight of the 10 approved herbicides may still be used on approximately 840 additional acres on 150 sites, not mapped under the plan, which includes high priority Early Detection/Rapid Response sites discovered and mapped after the 2008 mapping relied upon in the decision.